Gulf Coast Seven - Keep Your Temper

This was a band led by Perry Bradford (1893-1970), who was an African-American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer. In 1906 he started working with minstrel shows. He played in Chicago as a solo pianist as early as 1909 and visited New York City the following year. Through extensive experience with traveling minstrel shows and theatre companies, Bradford obtained huge exposure and experience to African American folksongs. A huge feat of Bradford’s was severing the walls of racial prejudice that kept African-American singers from recording. He is, too often, unrecognized for this accomplishment. Prior to Bradford’s influence, African-American artists recorded in a style that was closely similar to those of white dance orchestras. Bradford persevered in getting the recording industry to value recordings of African-American artists recording in the style of their own subculture. As a pianist, singer, dancer and composer, Bradford worked in theatre circuits throughout the South and into the North for the next decade (1908–1919) in a song and dance act billed as "Bradford and Jeanette". While in New York City, Bradford convinced Fred Hager, of Okeh Records, to record Mamie Smith and became her musical director. Smith starred in Bradford's show Made in Harlem (1918). Bradford was also responsible for Smith being the first African-American blues singer to appear on record (singing his "Crazy Blues") in 1920. Bradford claimed that his revue, Made in Harlem, was the first stage production that offered blues matter to the large, northern audience in Harlem. Bradford was able to organize the first recording session, “That Thing Called Love,” that highlighted an African-American artist, accompanied by a white studio band, performing material specific to the African-American culture. He had offices in the Gaiety Theatre office building in Times Square.[3] Bradford toured and recorded with Smith, worked with Alberta Hunter and also headed seven recording sessions of his own during 1923–1927. Among Bradford's sidemen were J. Dunn, B. Miley, G. Bushell, B. Bailey, and J. P. Johnson. Bradford continued to promote blues and jazz recordings by publishing and managing. Bradford’s influence in the recording industry was negatively affected by the crash of the stock market, as well as by changes in the character of jazz and African-American songs. He was an irregular participant after the 1940s. With the rise of the Great Depression, Bradford slipped away into obscurity. In later years, he appeared to exaggerate his role in early blues, possibly a reaction to his being nearly forgotten. In 1957, Little Richard had a hit with Bradford's "Keep A-Knockin'". In 1965, Bradford's autobiography Born With the Blues was published with a foreword by Noble Sissle. Bradford's best-known songs were "Crazy Blues", "That Thing Called Love", and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down". This great record was made in 1925.